Spin-off expected from Alstom contract

By Mark Reynolds

The awarding of a big power industry maintenance contract in Australia to infrastructure company Alstom is expected to have a big spin-off for the New Zealand network services sector.

Alstom Network Services, an Auckland-based subsidiary of the global Alstom group, has secured a four-and-a-half-year contract to maintain the assets of Victorian power transmission company GPU PowerNet.

The deal is significant because it is the first large-scale maintenance contract awarded in the Australian power transmission network. This outsourcing of maintenance is expected to take hold in the Australian market over the next few years, just as it has become the norm for New Zealand power lines business over the past decade.

The good news for New Zealand companies is that Alstom intends to use the expertise it has developed here to service its growing Australian business. It will hire its own maintenance crews in Australia, but technical support and planning operations are expected to be sourced here.

That will mean more work for the 1,000 staff Alstom employs in New Zealand, and also business partners here.

"We expect that a lot of the organisations and companies we work with in New Zealand will benefit from this," said Alstom Network services chief executive Geoff Hunt.

"The changes to the industry in New Zealand over the past decade mean a lot of expertise has been built up here and we expect to use that as we move into Australia," he said..